"But if there be an Ear that hears,
and an Eye that sees all the evil of the earth, yet the Arm is slow to
avenge. Else why do I stand before you a living man?"
"His vengeance may be delayed for a time, but not forever," she answered,
gathering a desperate courage from the extremity of her fear.
"You say true, lovely Ellen; and I have done enough, erenow, to insure its
heaviest weight. There is a pass, when evil deeds can add nothing to
guilt, nor good ones take anything from it."
"Think of your mother,--of her sorrow through life, and perhaps even after
death," Ellen began to say. But, as she spoke these words, the expression
of his face was changed, becoming suddenly so dark and fiend-like, that
she clasped her hands, and fell on her knees before him.
"I have thought of my mother," he replied, speaking very low, and putting
his face close to hers. "I remember the neglect, the wrong, the lingering
and miserable death, that she received at my hands. By what claim can
either man or woman henceforth expect mercy from me? If God will help you,
be it so; but by those words you have turned my heart to stone."
At this period of their conversation, when Ellen's peril seemed most
imminent, the attention of both was attracted by a fragment of rock,
which, falling from the summit of the crag, struck very near them.
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